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When Roger Maltbie won the inaugural edition of the Memorial Tournament in 1976, beating Hale Irwin with a birdie on the fourth extra hole, he earned $40,000 from an overall prize money payout of $200,000.
Suffice it to say, times have changed.
With the 50th anniversary of the tournament that Jack Nicklaus’ built going on this week, the now PGA Tour signature event has a $20 million purse with the winner claiming a $4 million prize money payout.
In fact, with the cutline at Muirfield Village set at the top 50 and ties or any player within 10 shots of the 36-hole leader, no player who plays all four rounds will walk away with less money than Maltbie earned five decades ago. And every player finishing 24th or better will make more than the entire purse that was offered back in Year 1.
Entering this year’s tournament, two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler is trying to join Tiger Woods and the only golfer to win the Memorial in three consecutive years. Woods won it five times (1999-2001, 2009, 2012) during his career, but did it in an era where the prize money wasn’t as inflated as it is today. Woods’ career earnings in 18 Memorial starts come in at $5.4 million, which is paltry compared to the $10.09 million that Scheffler has made in his five career starts (it helps when your two wins earned you $8 million).
Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer this week in Ohio. We’ll update this listing when play is over on Sunday to include names and individual payouts.
Memorial Tournament Prize Money Payouts
Win: $4 million
2: $2.2 million
3: $1.4 million
4: $1 million
5: $840,000
6: $760,000
7: $700,000
8: $646,000
9: $600,000
10: $556,000
11: $514,000
12: $472,000
13: $430,000
14: $389,000
15: $369,000
16: $349,000
17: $329,000
18: $309,000
19: $289,000
20: $269,000
21: $250,000
22: $233,000
23: $216,000
24: $200,000
25: $184,000
26: $168,000
27: $161,000
28: $154,000
29: $147,000
30: $140,000
31: $133,000
32: $126,000
33: $119,000
34: $114,000
35: $109,000
36: $104,000
37: $99,000
38: $94,000
39: $90,000
40: $86,000
41: $82,000
42: $78,000
43: $74,000
44: $70,000
45: $66,000
46: $62,000
47: $58,000
48: $56,000
49: $54,000
50: $52,000
51: $51,000
52: $50,000
53: $49,000
54: $48,000
55: $47,000
56: $46,000
57: $45,000
58: $44,000
59: $43,000
60: $42,000
61: $41,000
62: $40,000
63: $38,000
64: $37,000
65: $36,000
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